Bernard Lagat, son of a poor Kenyan farmer, will seek double gold at the Beijing Games

By ART THIEL, P-I COLUMNIST

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, July 13, 2008

WE INTERRUPT THIS dirge of a Seattle sports summer to bring you a happy little tune -- Bernard Lagat.

In spite of being 5 feet 8 and 134 pounds, he might be the biggest thing the Washington State Cougars have given American sports since Keith Jackson, although not quite as funny as Jim Walden's broadcast complaints about college football officiating.

NBC, which apparently by federal law is required to tell each Olympics personal story using weepy violins as background music, will find Lagat's story so rhapsodically gooey he may stick to the inside of your TV screen during the Olympics next month.

After winning easily the 1,500- and 5,000-meter races at the U.S. track and field trials in Eugene, Ore., recently, the native Kenyan by way of Pullman is a favorite to go double gold in Beijing. Because an American hasn't won the 1,500 since the Roosevelt (Theodore) administration, and not since 1964 in the 5,000, winning both in the same Olympics would be a dry-land feat of Phelpsian proportions.

And, yes, he is an American, naturalized, culturized and patriotized in a way that makes his sincerity ring with first-generation authenticity.

"Now that I'm an American runner, I feel enormous pride running for the United States," he said in Eugene after his 5,000 win and before the 1,500. "I feel like this is where I'm comfortable. I wanted to make the best out of my running career, which meant coming to America.

"I've lived in this country a long time and received a lot of support. I got my education in the U.S.; to be the first one in my family to get an education was my biggest achievement. It means a lot to me to wear the uniform."

Lagat's portion of WSU's remarkable track legacy of African runners, begun in the 1970s under legendary coach John Chaplin, was from 1997-99. By his junior year before turning pro, Lagat was already a national buzz, winning the mile and 3,000 at the NCAA indoor championships, then winning the 5,000 outdoors. He was named college track's co-athlete of the year.

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, with a U.S. green card but running for his native land, Lagat won a bronze in the 1,500. Underscoring his point about education, Lagat returned to Pullman to finish two bachelor of arts degrees, in management information systems (2000) and decision science/econometrics (2001).

A few months before the 2004 Games in Athens, Lagat quietly completed his requirements and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. But he told almost no one, knowing that international track rules mandate a three-year sit-out before representing a new country. Since Kenya does not allow dual citizenship, he won the 1,500 silver in Athens technically without a country.

When the citizenship issue was disclosed in 2005 by the Chicago Tribune, there was controversy over whether he should surrender the medal. But nothing happened. In contrast to the growing business trend of outsourcing, Lagat was officially insourced to become king of American middle-distance running.

His career, and the people around him, made Lagat a symbol of the internationalization of sports.

The man who recruited Lagat to WSU was a Chinese national, Li Li, who interpreted for Chaplin during a visit to China in the 1970s. Li came to the U.S. as an assistant track coach under Chaplin. After getting his doctorate at WSU, he's now Dr. James Li and a U.S. citizen, as well as Lagat's personal coach and the U.S. Olympic track team's manager for the trip to Beijing.

When Chaplin retired from WSU in 1994, he was succeeded by Rick Sloan, a longtime WSU assistant who brought Li back to Pullman to coach the distance runners.

"How many Kenyans get out of school and there are no jobs," Lagat told The New York Times in a three-part series about his odyssey. "Or one job for 50 people. I wanted to be able to support my family here."

Lagat also found love among the lentils of the Palouse. Gladys Tom, a sports trainer pursuing a degree in WSU's athletic medicine major, is an ethnic Chinese who grew up in Vancouver, B.C., where her parents emigrated in the 1960s.

"He says he met me long before I remember meeting him," said Tom, laughing at the back of the hotel ballroom in Eugene, where Lagat was being interviewed. They married, moved to Tucson, Ariz, and now have a 2-year-old son, Miika, whose elusiveness suggested that the running gene has been passed down.

On the last day of the U.S. track trials, Lagat easily won the 1,500 with his searing finishing kick (3:40.37), joining two other naturalized citizens, Leonel Manzano (Mexico) and Lopez Lomong (Sudan), as the American entries in the Olympic race.

A few days earlier, he confirmed for the first time he would pursue the unprecedented double in Beijing. Why not? At the 2007 world championships in Osaka, Japan, he became first to win both races in the same meet.

"I'm very healthy," he said. "Last year, I had problems with my stomach. I have no problems this year, I feel stronger. I'm going to run the 1,500 and why not pursue the 5,000?

"It's not about just wearing the uniform. It's about going out and running with your heart, your mind and your soul to make sure you do the best for the country and the people."

Lagat will need all of those assets. Because of qualifying rounds, he will be forced to run five races covering 14,500 meters over 10 days.

With his coach and wife, both of Chinese heritage, cheering him on in Beijing, the Kenyan from the Palouse might become the best American track story of the games.